World Affairs Institute

The Hague Conference

Source: The Advocate of Peace (1894-1920), Vol. 69, No. 3 (MARCH 1907), pp. 49-50
Published by: World Affairs Institute
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It
VOL.

LXIX.
THE

if

BOSTON,
AMERICAN

PEACE

street,

boston,

mass.

u
MONTHLY,

ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR.

TEW CENTS
Entered at theBostonPost Officeai Second Claw Matter.

PER

page
CONTENTS.
49-55
Editorials.
The Hague Conference?The
Inter
Japanese Once More ?The
from Competitive
parliamentary Union and Its Work?Escape
Arming.
Editorial
55-58
Notes.
The National Peace Congress ? The Program of the Congress ?
A Most
Event ?International
Conciliation ?
Far-Reaching
Memorial
of the Philadelphia
Friends ?French
Foreign Min
ister Has Great Hopes ?The
Italian Foreign Minister ?The
Sufferers in China and
Spanish Foreign Minister ?The Famine
?
Russia?The
Twenty-second of February.
Japan Peace Society
58-60
Brevities.
:
General
Articles
The Arsenal at Springfield ? Longfellow.
60
Peace Day in the Schools.
61
Protests Against the Overshadowing Militarism
of the James
town Program. 61
What the Attitude of the Church Should be toward the James
town Naval and Military Program. 62
Nations Should Not Sit as Judges in Their Own Case ? Andrew
63
Carnegie.
Miss Hobhouse's Work in South Africa.
63
A Periodic Congress of the Nations ? Benjamin F. Trueblood...
The Cost of War.
66
New Books.
68
Pamphlets
69
Received.
International Arbitration and Peace Lecture Bureau . 69

The

Hague

COPY

Conference.

It is impossible as yet to give any more definite

information either as to the exact date of the as
sembling of the Hague Conference or as to the final
nature of the program.
Mr. Frederick
de Martens,
who, as is well known, is visiting as the Czar's envoy
the capitals of Europe
to discuss with the govern
ments the question of the date and the details of the
that the middle
of June
program, has announced
seems, from all that he has learned, to be the most
But no official an
agreeable date for the opening.
nouncement has yet been made to this effect.
We do not think there is any ground for the sug
gestion, still occasionally heard, that the Conference
will not meet at all this year.
The governments
have practically all expressed themselves in favor of
the meeting.
At the opening of the new
Reichstag
last month, the German Emperor, who, because
of
in the Conference
his attitude
of 1899, has been
supposed to be cold hearted about the coming one,
of the holding of the
expressed his warm approval
Conference.
The following statement given out
by
Mr. de Martens, on his arrival in London, as to the
progress of his mission and the prospects of the Con

have

so

far

consulted

idea of the whole subject,

side and the more pessi
three

powers,?

Germany,

and I am very satis

the United States and France,?
fied with the display of goodwill which I have found
everywhere, and the readiness to help the Conference.
The second Peace Conference, which is to assemble at
in June, will be unique in the history of in
The Hague
ternational relations. While at the firstConference only
twenty-six powers were represented, the delegates of
forty-six powers will meet under the same roof to dis
cuss

64

No.

ference, gives an excellent

from both the encouraging
mistic outlook:

SOCIETY,

Publishers,
31 beacon

J907.

MARCH,

questions

of mutual

interest.

Of

course,

there

can

be no doubt of the fact that the question of disarma

ment and the limitation of armaments will be the piece
de resistance of the program, and if either the British
or the United States government has really decided
to place this question on the agenda of the Conference
the powers will be obliged to discuss it. I cannot
imagine that any one power would make this question
the cause of serious political complications.
Personally
my feeling is that the matter is not yet ripe for discus
sion, and I am quite convinced that at the present mo
ment itwill be quite impossible to attain any practical
I cannot see how the powers
result from its discussion.
could disarm or how they could limit their armaments.
" At the same time I think it
absolutely necessary, in
order to guarantee the success of the labors of the Con
ference, that before itmeets this question or any other
matter which is to be brought forward should be known
by all the powers represented, so that the necessary in
structions may be given to the various delegates.
There
must be no surprises at the Conference, and the repre
sentative of every power must know exactly what is to
be discussed and what are the results desired by the
government he represents. Every resolution passed by
the Conference will have obligatory force if unanimity
prevails, but not a single power can be forced by a majority
of votes. This is a further reason why there should not
be complicated discussions and why the Conference
should be carried on in a spirit of harmony and mutual
goodwill.
"With

regard to the results of my mission so far, I

that
may say
Germany, France and Russia all hold that
the question of disarmament is not yet ripe for discus
sion, and further that, even the limitation of armaments
not being a practical question, no good can come from .
the discussion of it.
" The United States has reserved the
right of placing
the question of disarmament before the Conference, but
I have not heard as yet whether theWashington govern
ment has actually decided to do this or not.
" I
repeat what I have said on previous occasions, that
the one desire of the Czar ? his most sincere wish?is

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50 THE

ADVOCATE

OF PEACE.

March,

to prevent anything of the nature of misunderstanding

or bad feeling on this occasion, and that the Conference

the most unequivocal

terms, that it is the purpose of
in the
his government to have this subject discussed
a real and
should
have
value."
if it is at all possible.
it
is
well
practical
Conference,
Italy,
of the Drago
to the question
doctrine,
known, stands solidly with the British government
Turning
to believe
in this matter, and there is strong ground
Mr. de Martens said:
now
own
so
our
" This matter has
will
do
that
likewise.
government
provoked some misunderstanding
and bad feeling. If the Drago
doctrine is to form a
If, therefore, the subject is not put upon the program
in advance, it will be introduced when the Confer
guarantee that any power need not pay its debts, natu
it comes up, not only the
And when
rally it will not evoke very much sympathy, and from ence meets.
this point of view itwill not be approved.
Even in the majority of the great powers, but all the small pow
United States the Drago doctrine was accepted by Mr.
ers, will range themselves with Great Britain, and
Hay, the late Secretary of State, with considerable re
the subject will be voted a practical one of the first
serve.
If, on the other hand, the Drago doctrine will
order. The subject is too urgent, and too deep and
have the effect of referring to The Hague,
instead of
an interest is taken in it, to permit one
widespread
settling by force, questions which can be adjusted by
to
that it will be kept out of the Con
believe
easily
it cannot
be otherwise
than very useful."
arbitration,
ference, because two or three powers think it not ripe.
as to his views concerning
the results of
Asked
in all the countries are
the people
Meanwhile
remarked:
the Conference, Mr. de Martens
on the four or five great subjects
heard
from,
being
" I should
ought to consider, and as the
say that my mission is not connected with which the Conference
the Utopian ideas of eternal and permanent peace which
voice of the people saved the firstHague
Conference
seem
a matter
to exist
in some quarters.
must
Such
be
it an unexpected
and far
from failure and made
left for the future. I am looking quite hopefully to the
so
in
will
it
be
far
success,
greater
again,
reaching
results of the Conference, because this will be the first
the representatives
measure, we do not doubt, when
on
occasion
which the civilized nations of the world have
in
of all the nations of the world meet at The Hague
met together in a time of peace, not as the result of force
look into each other's faces and feel the mighty
June,
own
on
to
free will,
but of their
their mutual
legislate
mandate of humanity resting upon them.
relations. This is a great and noteworthy fact and shows
are
that they
coming together under circumstances quite
I
unknown in the history of international relations.
Once More.
The Japanese
have, as I have said, the best hopes as to the results, but
The San Francisco
school trouble over the Japan
one
some
cannot
of course
them, and
guarantee
skep
ese children has been settled,?
All the questions to be
but the
ticism is perhaps unavoidable.
apparently;
put before the Conference have in view the matter of settlement has revealed the true purpose of the San
?
the peace of the world.
in bringing on the crisis, namely, here
Franciscans
peace
"The
first half of the program concerns especially
out alto
after to keep
the Japanese workingmen
means for the prevention of war by international in
If the compromise agreed upon by Presi
gether.
quiry, meditation, or arbitration. The second part has
and the California
and
dent Roosevelt
delegation,
in view the limitation of the operations of war, by defin
new
in
to
the
be
embodied
with
treaty
ing as far as is practicable the rights and duties of proposed
evi
Japan, shall be carried out, as the Californians
It is really in the interests of all the nations
neutrals.
of the world that the safety of navigation and com
dently wish, in such a way as finally to exclude from
the country all Japanese laborers both unskilled and
merce, which in time of war is always endangered,
should be guaranteed in a much better fashion than has
skilled, the final result will be that but few Japanese
hitherto been the case.
all of the Jap
will be left in the State.
Nearly
" It is
anese who come over to our western coast are of
expected that the Conference will meet at The
San
The
two classes.
Hague in the middle of June and will probably sit for these
Francisco
school
two months."
authorities will
therefore have had their way in
From this statement it is clear that the govern
efforts, or rather with
spite of President Roosevelt's
ments are looking forward with great interest to the his cooperation.
The opening of the schools again
in it, to the Japanese children will mean next to nothing,
Conference, that they will all be represented
that two important classes of questions
will be by
for in time there will be almost no Japanese children
taken
and
that
to
enter them.
and
discussed,
up
agreement
general
The whole
boasted
the only subject which has been proposed for discus
settlement seems to us one
sion on which there is hesitation and disagreement
It is a settlement on an in
that settles nothing.
to exclude from the two
is the subject of limitation of armaments.
Mutually
iquitous basis.
and skilled, or
Mr. de Martens has, since leaving London, visited
countries all laborers both unskilled
The Hague, Rome and Vienna, and he may have dis
hands to do this for
to put it into the President's
our country, in the case of those traveling abroad
covered that in the meantime
the subject of limita
tion of armaments has ripened a good deal.
is radically and flagrantly wrong.
For the with passports,
has since declared anew, in It is against
British Prime Minister
the fundamental principles of human

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